Shoony

Shoony

(Creature)

Common

Humanoid

Shoony

Level

By class level

Alignment

LG	NG	CG
LN	N	CN
LE	NE	CE

Adjective

Shoony

Images of shoonies

Source: Life's Long Shadows, pg(s). 70ff.

Shoonies are an ancestry of small, bipedal humanoids who resemble brachycephalic dogs. They primarily live in small farming communities on the Isle of Kortos. Shoonies are unwaveringly optimistic and always see the best in others, seeking redemption and forgiveness before violence. Their numbers have dramatically declined in the century since the death of their patron Aroden.

Appearance

Typically around three-and-a-half feet tall and weighing 100 pounds, shoonies are squat and furry with flattened canine faces and wet, black noses. Their fur is most commonly fawn or black in color, though patterns are not uncommon, and even the fittest shoony has a pudgy appearance due to their loose skin. Shoonies from colder climates, known as thickcoat shoonies, have thicker fur that acclimates them to snow and extremely frigid temperatures.

Shoonies have short, curly tails that sometimes wag involuntarily when they are particularly overwhelmed with happiness or excitement. Similar to dogs, shoonies pant to cool off, and a shoony with a lolling tongue is a common sight on a warm day. Sexual dimorphism is practically non-existent, and as they age, both sexes develop gray facial fur, wrinkly skin, and frail joints.

Adventurers

A shoony hierarch wields a bow.

Few shoonies willingly choose to leave their homeland and friends in favor of facing the unknown, and the circumstances that lead a shoony to adventure are often dramatic and life-altering, if not tragic.

That said, some shoonies do travel to search for riches to bring back to their home or to avenge their kinfolk, and shoony adventurers who show courage or ingenuity are sure to earn a place in the legends of their people. Many shoony adventurers are fighters who hone their skills to become stalwart defenders of their friends. Some shoonies pursue theology and become clerics or champions, while others develop their foraging and hunting skills as talented druids and rangers.

Culture

Shoonies typically live in small farming communities as a way reducing environmental impact and place significant value in improving the ecosystems around them. To the shoony people, nothing is more important than the community around them and the environment that supports them. Pacifism, empathy, loyalty, and generosity are values that are pervasive within shoony society, traits that might have contributed to their decline as the world has grown increasingly hostile and violent.

Shoony clans must often trade for resources they lack, such as metal tools, weapons, and armor, and they deeply value both their tools and their trade relationships. Their primary staple crops include barley and beans, but they are most renowned for the rumored enhancing qualities of their fiddlehead ferns, cabbages, and carrots, and only shoonies know the secrets of cultivating their extraordinary properties.

Their agrarian society is vulnerable to poorly producing seasons, which can leave them with few resources for bartering. Due to the scarcity of weapons, most are kept in service of a community's militia, whose weapons are traditionally passed down between generations.

A shoony reaches maturity between the ages of eight to ten years old, and it is rare to find even a village elder over the age of 50. Despite the brevity of their lifespans, shoonies maintain a rosy outlook on life, even in the toughest of times. Shoonies rely on close ties with loved ones, the beauty of the natural world, and the inherent rewards of hard work to lift their spirits in the face of adversity.

Leadership of shoony communities tends to be hierarchical, with the heirarch responsible for leading the community's defence, or preferably evacuation, when necessary. The eldest child of a previous heirarch inherits rulership, and should a previous hierarch leave no heirs, shoonies elect a heirarch to a lifelong term.

In Absalom

An enclave of shoonies lives in Absalom, where many work in delivering broadsheet newspapers thanks to preferential benefits offered by the Greenlift Post newsletter in Eastgate. Shoonies are as such part of the din related to the city's print publishing industry that permeates Scriveners' Square in the Wise Quarter.

Religion

Shoony mythology claims that Aroden created their kind to be his companions shortly after he raised the Isle of Kortos from the sea. As a result, shoonies primarily worshiped Aroden until his death. Since then, many shoonies have adopted Erastil as their patron deity due to the overlap between his edicts on family, community, and responsibility to the natural world and typical shoony values. For the rare warriors among the shoony people, Iomedae is worshiped as a paragon of diligence and integrity.

Notable shoonies

See also: Category:Shoony/Inhabitants

• Surlo, an icon of fashion in Absalom
• Alson Yumin, a smuggler in Alkenstar City

References

Paizo featured shoonies as an ancestry in Life's Long Shadows.